Soledad Fox is professor of Spanish and comparative literature at Williams College. She has published articles and lectured on Spanish and French literature, and on exile and autobiographical writing. She spent 2004 as a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar researching the life of Constancia de la Mora. This study combines personal documents (unpublished letters, memoirs, and photos) and official government files (from the FBI and the Comintern), and brings together previously unavailable archival materials.

Originally
published in hardcover under the title Constancia de la Mora
in War and Exile.

Her fame seemed guaranteed
by the compelling story of her life. She had been an aristocrat
turned Communist, a celebrated author, and an international political
figure whose acquaintances and collaborators included Stalin, Eleanor
Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, Tina Modotti, Vittorio Vidali, and
Anna Seghers among many others. Yet, surprisingly, instead of remaining
a heroine of the Republic, Constancia de la Mora’s memory
somehow faded from Republican history. This books sets out to explore
the life of this privileged woman who unexpectedly cast in her lot
with that of the Spanish people.

Published in association with the Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies

I
Old Spain: Portrait of a Family II The War, 1936–1939: Fighting Fascism from
the Press Office III Mission to New York: Propaganda and Diplomacy
IV Refugee Crisis: From the White House to
the Blacklist V Mexico, 1940–1950: Exile

Epilogue

Notes
Bibliography
Index

“By
addressing the political and sociological meanings of Constancia
de la Mora’s
communism, the author opens up further audiences among historians
of twentieth-century Spain while her exploration of how, why
and with what consequences de la Mora then concealed this allegiance
embeds her story in the domestic political history of twentieth-century
America with its central mobilising narrative of anticommunism.”
Professor Helen Graham, Dept. of History, Royal Holloway,
University of London

“De la Mora is clearly one of the
most exciting female figures from the Spanish Civil War. Many
issues about De la Mora’s life and work have remained
a mystery. Dr Fox sets out to unravel those mysteries and
to elucidate, through her meticulous and brilliant research,
the intricate political intrigues that affected De la Mora's
life. Of special interest is the provenance of her excellent
autobiography on the war, In Place of Splendor, one
of the most compelling memory texts about the war. Fox’s
surprising findings about the authorship of the book and other
mysteries about De la Mora’s political activities should
provoke much discussion.” Shirley Mangini, Professor
Emeritus